The star will complete her run of Àlex Ollé's new Royal Opera production with a Saturday matinee performance – and will join audiences in the Paul Hamlyn Hall at approximately 3.30pm to sign copies of her latest CD, Paris, Mon Amour.

The album celebrates Yoncheva's love of Paris, the city where she first launched her career, and features arias from the 19th-century golden age of the Belle Epoque. The CD includes recordings of opera's most beautiful arias with works by Massenet, Puccini and Verdi.

Audience members wishing to attend the signing should meet in the Paul Hamlyn Hall after the performance has finished. If you are not attending the performance, but would like to purchase a signed CD – please arrive at the Main Entrance of The Royal Opera House (located on Bow Street) where you will be issued with a ticket. Ushers will be on hand to direct you to the Paul Hamlyn Hall.

‘It’s about love, it’s about hate, it’s about violence, it’s about fear – it’s about everything that is human in a way’, says Director David Bösch of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore. 'It’s a very dark and cruel opera. But there is love and there is hope.'

The opera begins mid-way through the story of a gypsy, Azucena, who plans to avenge the Luna family's murder of her mother by abducting their youngest son. Years later, Count di Luna aims to win the heart of noble lady Leonora. She however, has other ideas, and is in love with a revolutionary named Manrico, who looks strangely familiar.

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda believes that Verdi's music makes the story easier to follow and that elements of the score personify each character:

‘Even if the plot is particularly challenging, the music composed in this opera [ensures] everything makes sense', he says. 'In Manrico, you very much see the revolutionary element and understand immediately what he wants to do'.

Tenor Francesco Meli who sang role of Manrico also has high praise for the opera's composer:

'Verdi is not only a great composer of music but a great man of theatre', he says.

Soprano Lianna Haroutounian who plays Leonora, agrees the music captures the imagination of the audience:

‘The music is so powerful, so expressive, and so dynamic. This music has everything’.

Cendrillon (The Royal Opera, 2011)
6 October at 2pm and 7 October at 8am

Laurent Pelly’s production of Massenet's opera stars Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon, Alice Coote as Prince Charming and Eglise Gutiérrez as Fairy Godmother. Bertrand de Billy conducts The Orchestra of The Royal Opera House..

Stefan Herheim’s Olivier award-winning new production had its world premiere in October 2013, and was screened live in cinemas across the world. Read audience reactions to the opening night and the cinema relay.

The opera, which includes a range of impressive choruses, passionate duets and showpiece arias, is based on historical events from the 13th century, when the French and the Sicilians were in conflict. Stefan Herheim's elaborate production is set in a spectacular re-creation of the Paris Opéra of the 1850s. The director also explores the conflict between artists and those who want to abuse art

Katharina Thoma will make her Royal Opera debut with a new production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, which will have its UK premiere on 18 December 2014.

‘[Un ballo in maschera] is a story about the last days of monarchy; a story that includes love affairs, political conflicts and secret rebellion, which ends with the assassination’ says Katharina. ‘It is a brilliant mixture of tragedy and comedy, and the contradiction of the light and bright, and the very dark and tragic, is absolutely brilliant.’

Un ballo in maschera, one of Verdi’s most popular operas, features some of his most sophisticated and subtle music and was an instant success when it had its premiere in 1859.

Originally, Verdi based the opera on the story of Swedish king Gustav III, who was assassinated at a masked ball in the 18th-century. However, following objections by Italian censors in Naples and Italy, he was forced to transform the king into a governor – Governor Riccardo of Boston.

‘A lot of aspects in this piece fit with the world of society about 100 years ago – when one big epoch was coming to an end and the world was heading towards WWI without knowing it,’ says Katharina. ‘The piece also plays with different identities, which is a characterization of modern society: people tend to put on a mask and show a different identity.’

Un ballo in maschera runs from 18 December 2014 – 17 January 2015. It is a co-production with Theater Dortmund and Scottish Opera and staged with generous philanthropic support from The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund.

Operas have long expressed criticism of war and conflict. The hero of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito (1791) is determined to avoid tyranny at all cost. Verdi gives the title character in Simon Boccanegra (1857, rev. 1881) an ardent plea for peace, while Aida (1871) negatively portrays the Egyptians as brutal warmongers in contrast to the peaceful Ethiopians. Richard Strauss’s Friedenstag (1938) had such a clear anti-war message that the Nazis banned it, while Prokofiev explored the misery of the Napoleonic Wars in War and Peace (1943). Following the horrors of World War II, opera increasingly became a way in which composers – including the dedicated pacifists Tippett and Britten – could explore their political and moral convictions.

In King Priam (1962) Tippett uses the story of the Trojan War to explore the far-reaching effects of personal decisions. All the choices made in the first act of the opera – such as Priam abandoning his baby son Paris and years later bringing him home again, and Paris eloping with Helen – have tragic consequences. But could there ever have been a ‘right choice’? In a significant departure from Ancient Greek myth Tippett downplays the role of the gods – his human characters are independent, and their decisions their own.

In another contrast to his main source the Iliad, Tippett focuses on the trauma of war away from the battlefield, particularly on the sufferings of the ageing King Priam. Act II depicts the brutality of war through a gruesome, harshly-scored trio in which Priam, Hector and Paris gloat over the supposed death of Achilles. Act III movingly explores the terror of the Trojan women as their men fall in battle, and Priam’s grief as he begs Achilles for the body of his son Hector. The final scene, as Priam resigns himself to death, drives home the futility of war.

Britten was as firm a pacifist as Tippett, and wrote several openly anti-war works. Arguably his most famous is the War Requiem (written like King Priam for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962), which makes poignant use of the poetry of Wilfred Owen, interwoven with the Latin Requiem Mass. Criticism of war also features in several of Britten’s operas, most explicitly Owen Wingrave (a television opera first broadcast in 1971 and first performed onstage in 1974). Owen is expected to follow family tradition and join the army, but rejects a military career, and tells his grandfather General Sir Philip that he would make war a criminal offence. The harsh military music associated with the older Wingraves contrasts with Owen’s ardent defence of pacifism – culminating in his radiant Act II Peace Aria, where he declares ‘in peace I have found my image, I have found myself’. But Owen is denied a happy end when the ghosts of his ancestors take their revenge on him.

Britten and Tippett have not been the only composers to take an anti-war stance. Henze’s pacifism is reflected in his operas Der Prinz von Homburg (1958, about a prince who prefers love to his military duties), The English Cat(1980–83, a humorous work about a group of pacifist cats) and his re-workings of Greek tragedies in The Bassarids (1964–5) and Phaedra (2007). Philip Glass’s hugely popular Satyagraha (1979) explores Gandhi’s concept of non-violent resistance to injustice, while his Appomattox (2007) depicts the horrendous brutality of the American Civil War. Mark-Anthony Turnage turned to Sean O’Casey’s fiercely pacifist play on the tragedy of World War I for The Silver Tassie (2000). And John Adams has explored totalitarianism in Nixon in China (1987), terrorism in The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) and the horrors of nuclear warfare in Doctor Atomic (2005). In our politically volatile times, the message of non-violence in operas seems ever more relevant.

English Touring Opera performs King Priam in the Linbury Studio Theatre 13–22 February 2014. Tickets are currently sold out, but returns may become available.

Les Vêpres siciliennes was Verdi’s first grand opera. Originally written for the Paris Opéra, it follows in the tradition of French grand opera laid out by Meyerbeer. Though a huge success on its premiere (it was performed some 62 times in Paris in its first year alone), it failed to gain a place in the Paris Opéra’s repertory and as a result is one of Verdi’s lesser known works. This is the first time the opera has been performed at the Royal Opera House and promises to be a unique opportunity to see an operatic rarity.

The Story

Set amidst the turmoil of the French occupation of Sicily, Les Vêpres siciliennes is a tale of revenge, family relations and patriotism. Hélène longs to avenge her brother’s death at the hands of the powerful Guy de Montfort and in her bid for vengeance, she turns to the partisan Jean Procida and the rebellious patriot Henri. However, Henri’s discovery that his life and Montfort’s are closely entwined throws him, Montfort and Hélène into confusion and turmoil.

The Production

Stefan Herheim’s production is set in a stylized version of the very opera house in which the opera had its premiere. In this way, the production not only depicts the emotional and political struggle between the French and Sicilians, but also the tension between artists and art, and those who use and abuse it.

Set-piece ballet was a crucial part of grand opera, and themes of dance and the seedy voyeurism associated with it in the nineteenth century are woven into the production with performances throughout by eight tutu-clad dancers. Find out more about the production.

The patriots Hélène and Henri are intent on freeing Sicily from French rule. But the French governor Montfort has some startling news for Henri. Where will Henri’s loyalties now lie, and if he renounces Sicily’s cause will the rebel Jean Procida ever forgive him?

Essentially Theatrical

Stefan Herheim’s production takes place in a stylized version of the very opera house for which Les Vêpres siciliennes was written. Its plot, based around the political and emotional struggle between the French and the Sicilians, is told on one level, but the production also translates the story into an existential struggle between artists and the people who want to use and abuse art – making art itself the country over which they are fighting.

Verdi wrote Les Vêpres siciliennes for the Paris Opéra. His librettist was Eugène Scribe, the leading librettist for French grand opera at the time. Les Vêpres siciliennes had its premiere on 13 June 1855 and was very well received. However, it failed to gain a place in the Opéra’s repertory, due in part to a gradual lessening of interest in grand opera. This is the first time the work has been performed at the Royal Opera House.

A Grand Score for a Grand Opera

Les Vêpres siciliennes is constructed on a massive scale, with a richly varied and dramatic score. Highlights include dances, fiery choruses for the opposing French and Sicilian forces, large-scale duets (including a major scene for Henri and Montfort in Act III, and another for Henri and Hélène in Act IV) and several atmospheric arias, including Montfort’s Act III monologue and Hélène’s virtuosic boléro (‘Merci, jeunes amis’) in Act V.

Fathers and Sons

Verdi is well known for his psychologically probing portrayals of the father-daughter relationship, but the father-son bond also fascinated him. Scribe’s libretto (adapted from an earlier one written for Donizetti, Le Duc d’Albe) and Verdi’s music powerfully explore the tormented relationship between Henri and Montfort.

The production is generously supported by Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet, Mr and Mrs Baha Bassatne and The Maestro’s Circle. It is a co-production with The Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen.

Jonas Kaufmann astonished with his all-Wagner recital earlier in the year. He follows it now with his Verdi Album, his first release on Sony. Some of the repertoire is not an easy fit – don’t expect to see Kaufmann tackle the too-lyric Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera any time soon – but when the role is right, Kaufmann is unbeatable. The thirteen selections here cover both familiar and less well known Verdi arias, and it is evident that the tenor has thought each through from both a dramatic and a musical standpoint. This is visceral and virile singing, never more so than in his two selections from Otello: a role debut we can only hope is not far distant. Listen to Jonas Kaufmann's Verdi Album on Spotify.

In an ironic nod to a natural succession, Sony have released Placido Domingo’s new all-Verdi album at the same time as the Kaufmann disc. The great tenor is now singing the baritone repertoire, and this disc is a rich sampler of his stage roles of this voice type plus others he may never attempt. His voice is no longer able to sustain long lines and sometimes colours can’t quite manifest; but - and it’s a big but - this is quintessential Verdi singing from a master of his art. The deficiencies of age pale, and what remains is a blazing celebration of Verdi singing that breathes with an innate understanding of style and identification. A great recording all told, and not one I expected to deliver quite so eloquently. Listen to Plàcido Domingo's Verdi on Spotify.

The late – and great – soprano left little recorded legacy on her sadly early death in 2003. Poised on the brink of a great career, Chilcott had recorded the first 25 tracks (all Copland songs) of this Opus Arte release, they were to mark her last recordings. They are reissued here, and enhanced by a further six tracks taken from a recital at her 'home' house, La Monnaie in Brussels, covering Strauss, Berlioz, Argento, Vaughan Williams, Britten and one last number by Copland. Throughout she is a both instinctive and commanding artist, beautifully supported by Iain Burnside as her accompanist. A very special release and a disc of rare skill and charm. Listen to Susan Chilcott's The Shining River on Spotify.